Britain's Olive Oil Prices Reach a Seven-Year High, Hitting Restaurateurs

Summary

The price of olive oil in Britain has reached a seven-year high due to poor har­vests in Spain and Italy, com­bined with the weak­ened British pound fol­low­ing Brexit, result­ing in a 20 per­cent increase in imported olive oil prices. Restaurateurs in Britain, includ­ing Jamie Oliver, have been strug­gling with the higher costs of olive oil, with some hav­ing to raise menu prices or switch to dif­fer­ent brands due to the impact of Brexit on the value of the pound.

The price of olive oil recently hit a seven-year high in Britain after poor olive har­vests in Spain and Italy led to short sup­plies while the British pound has weak­ened. Brexit resulted in a drop in the value of the pound, which helped drive up prices of imported olive oil by around 20 per­cent.

Britain’s restau­ra­teurs have felt the blow of more expen­sive olive oil. Several chefs spoke out about the impact of hav­ing to pay more for a kitchen sta­ple.

Francesco Mazzei, owner of the London-based Sartoria restau­rant told Bloomberg he had increased his menu prices to com­bat the extra cost of sourc­ing olive oil. Mazzei said ​“Olive oil is becom­ing a lux­ury.”

Ben Tish who runs Salt Yard, (a London tapas restau­rant) said he had recently paid $648 for 100 liters of olive oil that cost $573 three months ago.

Bocca di Lupo’s owner, Jacob Kennedy told Bloomberg he had been unable to obtain his restaurant’s pre­ferred brand of olive oil.

Russell Norman, co-owner of Polpo (an Italian restau­rant chain) told Bloomberg, ​“As a restau­ra­teur, 2017 ter­ri­fies me.” Norman voiced his dis­may over the high price of olive oil and the impact of Brexit on staffing.

Jamie Oliver began clos­ing branches of ​“Jamie’s Italian,” blam­ing the col­lapse of the pound and the result­ing higher costs of pur­chas­ing olive oil and other ingre­di­ents from Italy. Oliver told The Independent news­pa­per ​“Olive oil is expen­sive and very much in the hands of nature.” Critics, mean­while have pointed out that Oliver’s restau­rants failed to draw cus­tomers for other rea­sons.

Jamie Oliver clos­ing restau­rants ​“due to Brexit”.
Not because food is sub-par, over-priced & no-one has been going for 5 years.
Not that.

— Sempersursum (@sempersursum) January 6, 2017

British shop­pers have also been stung by the higher costs of olive oil. Supermarkets increased olive oil prices by about 20 per­cent since sum­mer 2016.

Walter Zanre, Filippo Berio’s UK man­ag­ing direc­tor told The Telegraph, ​“2017 will be very bad for olive oil.” Zanre pre­dicted that British con­sumers could be struck by fur­ther increases in extra vir­gin olive oil prices of up to 30 per­cent if the GBP and the Euro reached par­ity. ​“We’ve been forced to go from peo­ple who make and bot­tle olive oil to cur­rency spec­u­la­tors,” Zanre said.

Zanre voiced his fear over an impend­ing olive oil cri­sis that could be worse than any­one expected. Global demand for olive oil has recently rock­eted while sup­ply has fallen.

Britain imports approx­i­mately 300,000 tons of olive oil annu­ally. Around 50 per­cent of Britain’s olive oil comes from Spain and Italy.

Spanish olive oil prices spiked by around 10 per­cent since October. In Italy price hikes reached almost 30 per­cent. Erratic weather in the Mediterranean region dur­ing 2016 resulted in poor olive har­vests which has led to the higher cost of olive oil.

• Bloomberg News


• Business Times